Bradley Stoke Town Council has issued a press release to clarify its staffing arrangements after the profile of the Deputy Town Clerk mysteriously disappeared from the Council’s website.
Following the retiral of the long-serving David Chandler in January, Sharon Petela was appointed the new Town Clerk with Lesley Osborne continuing to serve as Deputy Clerk. But then, in early June, Mrs Osborne’s profile mysteriously disappeared from the Contact the Office page of the Council’s website.
In a possibly related move, the Council has recently held two ‘extraordinary and confidential’ meetings (from which the press and public were excluded) to “consider and action the recent Council Staff Pay Grading and Restructuring Review”.
Pressed by The Journal, the Council has now issued a statement confirming Mrs Osborne’s retiral with effect from 28th May.
The statement says that the departure “was kept low key in accordance with her [Mrs Osborne’s] wishes”.
Mayor Ben Walker, wished Mrs Osborne well, saying:
“Lesley leaves with the best wishes of councillors and staff and the gratitude of many people from a host of organisations whom she has worked with during her time with the Council.”
[Ed: Best wishes to Lesley from The Journal as well – many thanks for your cooperation over the last couple of years.]
The statement goes on to say that the Council has not yet advertised the vacancy caused by Mrs Osborne’s departure, and that “no decision on the post will be taken until the results of the on-going staffing review are presented to Council.”
